LinkedIn To New Business

Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer of MarketingProfs admits that she was wrong about LinkedIn. She thought the soc net was mostly for finding a job, but now admits the site is more than that. What’s more compelling is the revelation that Boston’s PJA has had success prospecting for new business via LinkedIn.

After using LinkedIn to fill key positions within the agency, PJA VP Greg Straface decided to test how effective the network might be for new business outreach.
Investing an hour a day, Straface focused on three main activities:
• Targeted searches for such keywords as “VP of marketing,” specific ZIP codes and company names, to identify key contacts to call, InMail, email, or forward the agency’s portfolio.
• Tracking who was looking at his profile and those of other PJA staff, as featured on each user’s homepage. He then researched those companies in more depth, identified their marketing directors and sent out the agency portfolio by FedEx to land on their desks the next day (and again following up with a phone call, email, or InMail).
• Participating in LinkedIn groups catering to CMOs to build conversations with relevant individuals.

All three activities outlined by Starface seem like good calls. I think I’ll put my prospecting hat on and head over there now.

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Co-founder and editor of AdPulp. I wrote my first ad for a political candidate when I was 17 years old. She won her race and I felt the seductive power of advertising for the first time. I worked for seven agencies in five states before launching my own practice in 2009. Today, I am head of brand strategy and creative at Bonehook in Portland, Oregon.

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